Up the Ranks: Agustina Samara joins Prudential Indonesia as Chief HR & Community Investment Officer

Agustina’s passion to provide more Indonesians with the best HR development and strong financial literacy sees her move into the insurance sector.

Prudential Indonesia has welcomed Agustina Samara as the company's new Chief HR & Community Investment Officer.  

Before this, the seasoned HR leader spent her career in the financial technology sector, where the focus was on ensuring that various initiatives and solutions provide optimal benefits to connect all elements of the digital economy ecosystem to accelerate financial literacy and inclusion in Indonesia.  

In her new role, Agustina reports to the President Director of Prudential Indonesia, Ibu Michelina Laksmi Triwardhany, and will oversee and manage two strategic functions: human resources and community investment.  

On the HR front, she is focusing on developing & executing the organisation’s HR strategy aligned with its overall business goals & objectives. Meanwhile on community investment, she is leading and managing the organisation’s CSR initiatives and ensuring the company’s commitment to social and environmental responsibility. 

Looking ahead, Agustina’s number one priority for 2024 is to address the talent scarcity in the insurance industry, through focusing on four key areas: 

• capability building: Reskilling & upskilling employees’ skills & competencies in order to cope with the agile business strategy and market competitiveness. 

• succession planning: Prioritising to identify potential successors within the organisation for critical roles, but providing employees with the necessary coaching and mentoring to prepare them for their upcoming roles. 

• performance management: Performance management will go hand-in-hand with competitive compensation, which may be utilised to inspire, reward & retain talent based on their performance. 

• social community impact: Empowering and boosting up engagement in the volunteerism for both employees and agencies focusing on two pillars: education as well as health and safety for youth, women & kids. 

Speaking to HRO, Ibu Agustina shares that her number one talent concern in the region is that the insurance industry is currently finding it difficult to attract and retain talent in both actuary and agency. As such, she is hoping to use this opportunity to leverage on two factors:  

1. emerging technologies: Tapping into digital & analytics tools, AI, and other emerging technologies. These are being adopted by the insurance industry to create new roles and skills requirements.  

1. upskilling & reskilling: Leveraging on in-class learning and development (L&D) programmes which will incorporate up-to-date insights on adult learning methods. These will provide an opportunity for upskilling & reskilling existing employees.